Borderline
by entre-lagrimas-y-suspiros
Summary: Tumblr prompt: Regina decides to leave Storybrooke after witnessing a Charming family moment. This is SwanQueen fluff! ...Note if you favorited 'Stay', please favorite this instead there was a bit of a mix up.


_AN: This is my first SQ __fic so please be gentle. Reviews are awesome. _

* * *

Regina leaned against the wall as the portal closed, swirling purple mist disappearing through the ceiling sending the two rather ragged looking women crashing to the floor. She closed her eyes, drawing air into her burning lungs, willing the dizzying effect of the massive amount magic she'd used to dissipate. She might be exhausted to the point of being physically ill, but she wasn't about to let Emma Swan and Snow see it. When her eyes finally opened again they fixed on the two women she'd save. Both of them were her bitter enemies. Each in their own way responsible for taking away the little bits of happiness life had ever given her. Why had she agreed to do this?

"What happened?" Snow asked as Charming helped her stand and pulled her into his arms. "How did you..."

"Later, it doesn't matter now." He answered with all the gentleness of the Charming prince that had not been directed at her once in the four long months since the women had disappeared.

Hands tightening into fists, she let body fall fully against the wall. Why was it that this man who seemed to be kind to everyone had not thought her worthy of even briefest show of sympathy? Why could no one see past the Evil Queen title, even when her emotions where so close to the surface that she couldn't stop them from seeping out? Why did her tears, her desperate cries for help, always go unacknowledged? Was she really so much less deserving of basic human compassion then everyone else? Any citizen of Storybrooke would say she was due the same compassion she'd shown her victims, none. But they were so wrong. She'd shown more compassion to them than she should have. She'd given them new lives, each with a purpose. They all lost their memories, but most of them kept their families, their friends. Archie found Marco. Granny still looked over Ruby. All of them walked around for 28 years without any knowledge that they didn't belong there. For all that time they'd lived their lives without the faintest idea that it should be different. Could you miss something when you didn't know you lost it? Snow, the one person she wanted to punish above all others, went about without a single thought of her precious husband. Not once in all that time did she have to cry over the loss. She was simply blissfully unaware, they'd all were. Regina had been the only one that marked each passing day, mourning the love she couldn't let go, waiting for a happy ending that seemed farther away with each passing year.

"Mom."

She swallowed her melancholy and focused on the people in the courtroom once more. Her eyes searched for the dark head of her son, focusing on the one good thing she'd ever done, the reason why she'd agree to do this. Pushing off the wall she stepped forward as hope flickered inside her. Henry needed her.

"Easy kid."

She stopped, rocking back on her heels her world tilting on its axis as he barreled into Emma his small arms encircling her waist with a fierceness he hadn't shown her in almost two years. The love he felt for his birthmother evident in the tightness of his hug, in the cadence of his small voice. Something small and fragile broke inside her at the scene. She'd done this for him, to show him she loved him. This was supposed to remind him of what had been, when it was just the two of them and he only ever saw his mother when he looked her. Back when she had been his heroine instead of the villain.

Her magic spiked, anger cruising through her. She could have them all on their knees in an instant. She could reduce the building to ashes. Her pain had always fueled her anger, her need for revenge. It was still there. She stayed where she was unclenching her fists willing the anger away. She loved Henry. She loved him more than he could possible understand, more than should be possible given the void that had lived inside her for so long. Regina loved him and she had made him a promise, so she stay put and waited.

She saw Henry and Charming take turns hugging each woman. They stood beside the Charming women as the rest of the group approach them. Granny, Ruby, Archie, Marco, the Blue fairy, and the dwarves all taking turns in welcoming them back. Regina waited patiently to be acknowledged. She waited for Charming or Henry or anyone to say that she'd been the one the found a way. That she'd brought them back. That she'd help, as promised. She waited until her patience wore thin.

Regina let her eyes linger on Henry for a moment before silently making her way out the courtroom. Maybe he only wanted her because she was useful, because she could bring Emma back to him. Henry had the mother he wanted back. She wasn't needed. She wasn't wanted. Maybe it was time she accepted she'd lost. Maybe it was time to take her leave.

* * *

Emma smiled uneasily at the group of well-wishers. After the months with only Aurora, Mulan, and Snow for company it was hard to be in a large group again. Hell, even the small group she traveled with in the Enchanted Forest was too much. Emma was a loner for a reason. It wasn't just about her not being able to trust people and open up. Yes, she found that hard, but it was more than that. Emma liked things the way she like them, and she hated when they changed. Her life had been in constant flux ever since Henry appeared in it. The last months had been the worst of it. She might have found her sea legs in the Enchanted Forest, but it wasn't home. She'd been itching to get back to Storybrooke, to Henry, to..."So how did you get us back?"

"The Evil Queen."

Her brows furrowed at the Blue Fairy's words. Seriously, they all knew the woman's name. Why not use it? It wasn't even a long name, and it was kind of pretty. "Regina?"

Snow gave her one of those side-glances that she'd been throwing at her for weeks and weeks. It was knowing and suspicious and worried, all rolled into one. "She helped?"

"Yes." David-Charming-her father, answered.

Yeah, that was still weird. Shaking her head to clear her thought she looked around the room. If Regina had helped, where was she? "How?"

"Magic."

Emma looked down at Henry, who had a look that said 'isn't that obvious' written all over his face. A look he defiantly hadn't gotten from her. "So where is she?"

Almost as one everyone turned around to look for the former mayor. She was getting the feeling that no one there actually cared where the woman was as long as she wasn't wrecking havoc on them. Well, she could understand that, but she wanted to see Regina. As stupid and nonsensical as it was Emma wanted to see Regina almost as much as she wanted to see Henry. She'd worried for so long now that everyone would turn on Regina or that David wouldn't care to keep the promise she'd made to Henry. Her nightmares in the Enchanted Forest hadn't been about ogres, giants, or even Cora; they were always about getting home only to find that the only thing left of Regina Mills was a cold-lifeless body. Even thinking about it made her stomach queasy. "Seriously," she pressed a hand to her traitorous stomach and took a breath. She needs to dispel the nightmare once and for all, and there was only one way to do it.

She dropped Henry's hand and moved a bit away from the group. "I'll be back."

"Emma, where are you going?"

Snow's special look was back and Emma smiled at it. "You already know."

"But, we just got here."

She shrugged a little, her gazes moving between her parents. "You're where you need to be. I have to go."

"Emma, wait. I'll go with you."

She stopped and let Henry run into her arms again. Leaning over to him to cocoon him with her body. She placed a kiss on his head, before pulling back. "You stay with Snow and David. I'll see you back in the apartment in a bit."

She didn't wait for a nod or any other comments that could delay her. Instead she almost sprinted out of the building and down the road towards the mayor's house. Emma might be a bit tired, but she wasn't about to let that keep her.

Storybrooke's small size meant she made it the Regina's door in no time. She stepped up to it ready to knock, all the excitement that built from the moment she decided she would see Regina no matter what still pumped loudly in her ears, when she notice the door was ajar. A small twinge of worry settled over her, taking the excitement in one swoop. She stepped into the foyer with trepidation, not entire sure if she was more affair for Regina or of her.

"Regina?" Silence.

She stood in the large space for a moment listening. She strained her ears for any sign of that there was someone else there. Nothing. She exhaled, the sound much too loud in the empty house, and turned looking at the stairs and the various rooms leading off the foyer trying to decided where to start looking for the woman. It was on her second glance around the place that she caught sight of a neatly folded note on the dinning table. She almost tripped over her feet in her haste to grab it, unfolding it with absolutely no care a new sense of dread building inside her. She read through the words four times before her brain could make any sense of what the hell Regina was going to do.

Emma crumbled the note in her hand. "Fuck! Really, Regina." She tossed it back on the table. She needed to get her car. She needed to talk to David. She needed to find out the hell had gone on while they were gone.

* * *

She should hated that she's still standing firmly on the Storybrooke side of the orange line on the asphalt that divides the town from the rest of the world. She was supposed to be gone by now. Whatever gone might mean for her. Like most of the major decisions in her life, she was conflicted. She knew what she had to do. She was well aware that it was the best thing for everyone involved, the best thing for Henry. She would be gone and he could find a place among the Charmings. He could have the life of a prince he seemed so desperate to have. With her gone he would simply be the Savior's son, Snow's grandson, and that would keep him safe. He would have the happiness that she'd always tried to give him.

Why was she over thinking this? There was nothing left for her. She would never win Henry back, he picked Emma, and even if she could Charming would never give him up now. Regina had seen it, ever since the episode in the stables; she'd see Charming taking to the role of grandfather. He was taking the opportunity to raise Henry because he hadn't been able to raise Emma.

Regina pursed her lips at the thought of the woman, at the promise Emma had made to not let her die, at the way her arm tingled when Emma touch her and her magic came to life. A complication she had yet to unravel, one she never would now. She pushed off the hood of her car and stepped closer to the line.

"What the hell are you doing?"

She turned more surprised at the voice than at being interrupted. "Miss Swan, I thought you'd be celebrating."

"Can't really do that when you go off half-cocked, again, doing crap that makes me want to shoot you. Do you know what happens if you cross that line? Did David tell you?"

It was a more colorful tirade than she was used to. The time away certainly seemed to bring out the worst in the Savior. "Yes, dear, I am well aware. As to what I'm doing, I assume you read my note."

"Why else would I be here?" Green-blue eyes glared at her, menacing, as Emma closed the distance between them. "What are you doing?"

"My message was perfectly clear." She turned back to look at the line, ready to face her destiny whatever it might be. "I only ask one thing Miss Swan," it wasn't the time to act superior, there was no need, "Emma...take care of our son."

She was about to step over the line, unwilling to drag this out a moment longer, when a hand on her arm spun her around making her fall against Emma's body. "What are you doing?"

Emma glared, dragging them along the length of the hood of the car before pushing her against the door. "Saving your life for the hundredth time."

"I don't need saving. Least of all by you." She spat the words. She was so sick of people manipulating her every which way, forcing her hand to make her do what they wanted. She was done. She wanted out, anyway she could.

"Yeah, you do." The hold on her arm loosened though the blonde didn't release her. Her eyes losing all their anger and the woman seemed to sag, almost as if she was too burden to keep the anger burning for too long. Regina knew exactly how it felt. It's why she wants out. Her anger was gone. Her son was gone. She had nothing left. "You need saving more than anyone I've ever met. You might hate that it's me doing the saving and I'm sorry for that, but no one else seems to be lining up for the job."

She back of her eyes began to sting and the tightness in her chest felt suffocating. The truth always hurt, always dragged up a painful past she didn't need reminding about. It's why she always avoided it. "I am well aware, however, that doesn't mean you have to do it."

"Yeah, I do."

The small voice, almost childish and frighten, made her look up at Emma with a start. There was something there. Something she'd never seen before. "Why?"

"Why where you going to cross the line? Why were you willing to lose yourself? Do you even know what it would do to you? Did you forget you never had a cursed identity?"

"No, but I have nothing left. Henry has you. What's the point of staying? What's the point of fighting?" If circumstance were different she would cursed herself at the defeated tone, but there was nothing for it now. She had lost. They'd all seen it.

Blonde curls bounced as Emma shook her head vigorously. "You are the most insufferable, mean, awful woman on the entire fucking planet."

"No need to compliment me." She bit back sarcastically. Why couldn't the woman just let her go? It was plain she thought of Regina in much the same way as the rest of them.

"Yeah, there is. For four fucking months the only thing driving me was the need to get back here, back to Henry and to you."

Regina blinked, confused. "What?"

"You're a evil witch and I should hate you, but I don't. I tried, but I couldn't. All the time I was gone all I could think about was you and Henry."

"Me?" She saw Emma's eyes moving from her own eyes to her lips as she spoke. She'd seen the slight darkening of the irises, turning more green than blue. She could see it, but she couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible. Could Emma feel something for her? And why did that made her feel...happy? "Why?"

The corner of Emma's lips lifted into a grin. "Because you're not really an evil witch, are you?" Green eyes looked straight into her own then, a mesmerizing gaze too powerful to look away from. "I don't know what really happened to you. Not all of it, but I know you didn't just wake up one day and decided to ruin everyone's happiness."

"Emma," it came out as a murmur, a quiet prayer that the woman might actually understand her; that finally someone was willing to try.

The grin blossomed into a full goofy smile. "You're the mother of my kid, whom I made I promise to protect you. So I will even from yourself. Besides I can't stop thinking about you."

"I..." She wants to say something. Anything really, but she's stunned. Her stomach begins to flutter with nervous excitement. She can't understand what's happening, but she's powerless to stop it.

The hands on her shoulder move to cup her face as Emma gaze continues to look, not into her eyes she's gone deeper than that. The blonde was looking into a place Regina thought lost for years, her soul. "I'm gonna kiss you now."

She opens her mouth, but she's lost the ability to form words. Regina licks her lips instead and waits for Emma to lean in closing the inches between them. The brush of lips against hers is gentle, almost shy, and not what she'd expected. There is only the slightest of pressure there. It could easily have been a tease if not for the light brushing of Emma's thumbs over her cheeks and the soft sigh that escapes the blonde as she lingers. Her hands land on Emma's waist almost on instinct, yet she doesn't feel the need to pull her closer. The thought that there will be time to taste Emma, all of her, overwhelms her almost as much as the fact that she wants to. For now she is happy to stay in this tender moment so full of promise. She's happy to stay, for Emma.


End file.
